Talking trash

San Franciscans are doing so well diverting waste from the landfill that residents may soon be able to opt for less frequent garbage pickup. Instead of having your black-bin trash hauled away once a week, you may be able to opt for service twice a month, or even less often.

”If there are no organics in the trash, you can probably have it picked up once a year,” said Robert Haley, recycling program manager for the San Francisco Department of the Environment.

His agency is working with Recology, the company that processes household waste in the city, on developing a test program, possibly starting on a route in the Haight-Ashbury early next year.

The frequency of pickups for green and blue bins would remain the same. Currently the garbage, er, garbage/compost/recycle company only charges for servicing the black garbage bins, but that could change, said Recology CEO Mike Sangiacomo. As use of the black bins diminishes, the company may start charging for picking up recyclables and compostables to recover costs.

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It could soon cost you more for green and blue bin pick up.

San Francisco is now diverting 77 percent of its waste from the landfill — up from a 72 percent diversion rate last year and a bit better than the 75 percent goal that had been set for 2010.

”I happen to think that this is a big deal,” Mayor Gavin Newsom said Friday in announcing the new diversion rate that is the best of any American city. ”This represents an important milestone.”

He made his remarks at the Recology-operated dump near Candlestick Park and used the occasion to tout the city’s ban on plastic bags and mandate to compost — policies ridiculed by Newsom’s Republican rival in the lieutenant governor’s race, the incumbent, Abel Maldonado. But Newsom said San Francisco should be held up as a model and embraced not just by urbanites, but by those living in suburbia and rural communities.

”It’s those urban centers that are consuming the vast majority of resources and then disposing them in your backyard, in a landfill near you,” said Newsom, the mayor-turned-statewide candidate. ”Unless we come up with the creative ideas, these cities will be dumping their waste down the road from your playground, down the road from your park. So this is something that all Californians, all Americans should be gravitating towards and enthusiastic about.”